Swing rocker or "glider" chairs and swivel chairs have long been known in the art. The basic principles of a glider chair are illustrated in the early U.S. Pat. No. 383,808 to Hall, and in the more recent U.S. Pat. No. 5,024,483 to Kamman. A stable technique for supporting the movable seat or chair proper portion of such configurations has been to pivotally hang or suspend the chair proper portion from and between a pair of stationary base or standard members, as for example illustrated in the Hall patent. Since the chair proper portion of such structures lies between the spaced support standards, this type of configuration is very stable as the chair proper pivotally glides between the supports. Such configurations, however, do not permit the chair proper portion of the assembly to "swivel" relative to the base supports.
The desirability of combining a swivel feature with the swinging or gliding chair motion was recognized early on by the structures described in U.S. Pat. No. 561,719 to Menuez. Menuez replaced the spaced support standards of Hall with a central base support having a plurality of legs radially extending from a vertically oriented central hub or spindle member to which was attached a revolving platform or bed configured to rotate in a horizontal plane about the spindle axis. The revolving platform, in turn, operatively supported the chair proper for transverse gliding motion relative to the central base through a stirrup and hanger assembly, well-known in the art. While the Menuez structure provides a configuration for combining swivel and gliding motion in a chair, the support structure required is heavy and generally unattractive, is typically configured of steel or other heavy metal portions requiring maintenance, and does not provide for ready vertical height adjustment of the support platform.
More recent swivel glider chair base configurations have been developed over the years as illustrated by the structure shown in the more recent U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,920 to Horn. However, such structure is fairly complex and also does not provide for manufacturing flexibility in adjusting the height of the chair proper portion of the assembly.
The present invention addresses the above-described shortcomings of the prior art by providing a simple, easy to manufacture and aesthetically pleasing base configuration for swivel gliding chairs. The base support of this invention enables the seat portion of the chair to be adjusted in height to accommodate the chair's primary user, in a stable manner. The base support design is readily applicable to straightforward, relatively inexpensive manufacturing processes.